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Desert mementos : stories of Iraq and Nevada
\"Desert Mementos capture the similarities in the respective desert landscapes of both Iraq and Nevada. But it is not just a study in contrasting landscapes. Desert Mementos explores the similarities and differences in human needs from the perspectives of vastly different cultures and in vastly different environments.\"--Provided by publisher.
Book
Savage dreams
\"A beautiful, absorbing, tragic book.\"—Larry McMurtry In 1851, a war began in what would become Yosemite National Park, a war against the indigenous inhabitants. A century later–in 1951–and a hundred and fifty miles away, another war began when the U.S. government started setting off nuclear bombs at the Nevada Test Site. It was called a nuclear testing program, but functioned as a war against the land and people of the Great Basin. In this foundational book of landscape theory and environmental thinking, Rebecca Solnit explores our national Eden and Armageddon and offers a pathbreaking history of the west, focusing on the relationship between culture and its implementation as politics. In a new preface, she considers the continuities and changes of these invisible wars in the context of our current climate change crisis, and reveals how the long arm of these histories continue to inspire her writing and hope.
eBook
The Nevada Test Site
\"Emmet Gowin likes to ask a provocative question: \"Which country on earth has had the largest number of nuclear bombs detonated within its borders?\" The answer is the United States. Covering approximately 680 square miles, the Nevada National Security Site, formerly known as the Nevada Test Site, was the primary testing location of American nuclear devices from 1951 to 1992; 1,021 announced nuclear tests occurred there, 921 of which were underground. The site, which is closed to the public, including its airspace, contains 28 areas, 1,100 buildings, 400 miles of paved roads, 300 miles of unpaved roads, 10 heliports, and two airstrips. Its surface is covered with subsidence craters from testing, and in places looks like the moon. In 1996, Gowin received permission to document the landscape by air, after over a decade of working to secure access. These aerial views of environmental devastation--made quietly majestic but no less potent in the hands of a master photographer--unveil environmental travesties on a grand scale. While groups of images from the Nevada Test Site series have been published previously, this book will produce the largest number yet, and three quarters of the pictures will not have been published at all. Gowin is the only photographer to have been granted access to this site, which is now permanently closed, post-9/11. Other than images made by the government for geographic purposes, no other images of this landscape exist. The book will feature a preface by photographer Robert Adams (America, b. 1937), whose photographic and written work is concerned with landscape, urbanization, and activism. It will also feature an afterword by Gowin on how he made the images, and their significance to him today.\"--Provided by publisher.
Book
Change in Vegetation Patterns Over a Large Forested Landscape Based on Historical and Contemporary Aerial Photography
Changes to vegetation structure and composition in forests adapted to frequent fire have been well documented. However, little is known about changes to the spatial characteristics of vegetation in these forests. Specifically, patch sizes and detailed information linking vegetation type to specific locations and growing conditions on the landscape are lacking. We used historical and recent aerial imagery to characterize historical vegetation patterns and assess contemporary change from those patterns. We created an orthorectified mosaic of aerial photographs from 1941 covering approximately 100,000 ha in the northern Sierra Nevada. The historical imagery, along with contemporary aerial imagery from 2005, was segmented into homogenous vegetation patches and classified into four relative cover classes using random forests analysis. A generalized linear mixed model was used to compare topographic associations of dense forest cover on the historical and contemporary landscapes. The amount of dense forest cover increased from 30 to 43% from 1941 to 2005, replacing moderate forest cover as the most dominant class. Concurrent with the increase in extent, the area-weighted mean patch size of dense forest cover increased tenfold, indicating greater continuity of dense forest cover and more homogenous vegetation patterns across the contemporary landscape. Historically, dense forest cover was rare on southwesterly aspects, but in the contemporary forest, it was common across a broad range of aspects. Despite the challenges of processing historical air photographs, the unique information they provide on landscape vegetation patterns makes them a valuable source of reference information for forests impacted by past management practices.
Journal Article
Improved topographic ruggedness indices more accurately model fine-scale ecological patterns
ContextTopographic ruggedness has been examined in thousands of ecological studies and is a popular variable for characterizing habitat selection. Despite widespread adoption, ruggedness metrics are often applied uncritically and require systematic and thorough testing using both artificial landscapes and real-world applications.ObjectivesIn this paper we introduce a technique that removes the correlation of topographic ruggedness with curvature in order to more accurately represent fine-scale surface ruggedness.MethodsWe test our modified version of several ruggedness metrics against traditional ruggedness metrics using three ideal ruggedness criteria in artificial landscapes. We further tested our modified ruggedness measures using 449 real mountain ranges in Nevada, USA. Using desert bighorn sheep as a case study, we tested both modified and uncorrected ruggedness measures and slope in a multiscale context in order to examine habitat selection by female bighorn sheep.ResultsThe modified versions of the metrics passed all three criteria of the ideal ruggedness test and was able to accurately capture surface ruggedness. Modified versions of ruggedness differed from uncorrected versions by containing fewer highly rugged cells along ridgelines and drainages. Habitat relationships of desert bighorn sheep with ruggedness were scale-dependent, such that female sheep selected for steep slopes at fine spatial scales and ruggedness at moderate spatial scales.ConclusionsWe demonstrate that there are three components to ruggedness: elevation variation, aspect diversity, and surface ruggedness representing first, second, and third generation ruggedness indices. Our technique for removing underlying topographic variation provides an improved mapping of surface ruggedness and augments the other two generations of ruggedness metrics.
Journal Article
Pygmy rabbit habitat network reveals threats and opportunities for management and conservation
ContextIdentifying core habitat areas and corridors is a first step to ensuring suitable areas are available to support movement and gene flow. The pygmy rabbit (Brachylagus idahoensis) is a species of concern and a sagebrush obligate of the arid Great Basin, yet a habitat network of core areas and corridors for this species has not been assessed.MethodsUsing a multiscale habitat modeling approach, we mapped pygmy rabbit habitat suitability and identified important variables that define habitat suitability. Movement pinch points in the Snake River plain and from Nevada west to Oregon/Idaho were identified from our connectivity analyses.ResultsVegetation and climate variables were key for predicting pygmy rabbit habitat suitability constituting 38% and 31% of total variable importance respectively. Vegetation variables were consistently selected at fine spatial scales (90–720 m) whereas all other types of variables varied in their spatial scale. The level of protection for corridors compared to core areas differed depending upon the metric. Core areas had a greater percentage of sage-grouse priority Habitat Management Area but a lower percentage of total Habitat Management Area compared to corridors. Threats were consistently higher for corridors compared to core areas across a wide range of metrics.ConclusionsThe network of corridors and core areas from this analysis provide land managers with a starting point to develop site-specific plans to enhance pygmy rabbit habitat and connectivity. Corridors tended to have less protection under the sage-grouse priority areas than core areas and appear to be potentially more susceptible to climate-change range retraction.
Journal Article
The geography of climate change: implications for conservation biogeography
Aim Climate change poses significant threats to biodiversity, including impacts on species distributions, abundance and ecological interactions. At a landscape scale, these impacts, and biotic responses such as adaptation and migration, will be mediated by spatial heterogeneity in climate and climate change. We examine several aspects of the geography of climate change and their significance for biodiversity conservation. Location California and Nevada, USA. Methods Using current climate surfaces (PRISM) and two scenarios of future climate (Alb, 2070-2099, warmer-drier and warmer-wetter), we mapped disappearing, declining, expanding and novel climates, and the velocity and direction of climate change in California and Nevada. We also examined finescale spatial heterogeneity in protected areas of the San Francisco Bay Area in relation to reserve size, topographic complexity and distance from the ocean. Results Under the two climate change scenarios, current climates across most of California and Nevada will shrink greatly in extent, and the climates of the highest peaks will disappear from this region. Expanding and novel climates are projected for the Central Valley. Current temperature isoclines are projected to move up to 4.9 km year⁻ⁱ in flatter regions, but substantially slower in mountainous areas because of steep local topoclimate gradients. In the San Francisco Bay Area, climate diversity within currently protected areas increases with reserve size and proximity to the ocean (the latter because of strong coastal climate gradients). However, by 2100 of almost 500 protected areas (> 100 ha), only eight of the largest are projected to experience temperatures within their currently observed range. Topoclimate variability will further increase the range of conditions experienced and needs to be incorporated in future analyses. Main Conclusions Spatial heterogeneity in climate, from mesoclimate to topoclimate scales, represents an important spatial buffer in response to climate change, and merits increased attention in conservation planning.
Journal Article
Declining old‐forest species as a legacy of large trees lost
Aim Global declines in large old trees from selective logging have degraded old‐forest ecosystems, which could lead to delayed declines or losses of old‐forest‐associated wildlife populations (i.e., extinction debt). We applied the declining population paradigm and explored potential evidence for extinction debt in an old‐forest dependent species across landscapes with different histories of large tree logging. Location Montane forests of the Sierra Nevada, California, USA. Methods We tested hypotheses about the influence of forest structure on territory extinction dynamics of the spotted owl (Strix occidentalis) using detection/non‐detection data from 1993 to 2011 across two land tenures: national forests, which experienced extensive large tree logging over the past century, and national parks, which did not. Results Large tree/high canopy cover forest was the best predictor of extinction rates and explained 26%–77% of model deviance. Owl territories with more large tree/high canopy cover forest had lower extinction rates, and this forest type was ~4 times more prevalent within owl territories in national parks (x¯ = 19% of territory) than national forests (x¯ = 4% of territory). As such, predicted extinction probability for an average owl territory was ~2.5 times greater in national forests than national parks, where occupancy was declining (λ¯^<1) and stable (λ¯^=1), respectively. Large tree/high canopy cover forest remained consistently low, but did not decline, during the study period on national forests while owl declines were ongoing—an observation consistent with an extinction debt. Main conclusions In identifying a linkage between large trees and spotted owl dynamics at a regional scale, we provide evidence suggesting past logging of large old trees may have contributed to contemporary declines in an old‐forest species. Strengthening protections for remaining large old trees and promoting their recruitment in the future will be critical for biodiversity conservation in the world's forests.
Journal Article
Burn weather and three-dimensional fuel structure determine post-fire tree mortality
ContextPost-fire tree mortality is a spatially structured process driven by interacting factors across multiple scales. However, empirical models of fire-caused tree mortality are generally not spatially explicit, do not differentiate among scales, and do not differentiate immediate from delayed mortality.ObjectivesWe aimed to quantify cross-scale linkages between forest structure—including spatial patterns of trees—and the progression of mortality 1–4 years post-fire in terms of rates, causes, and underlying demography.MethodsWe used data from a long-term study site in the Sierra Nevada, California to build a post-fire tree mortality model predicted by lidar-measured estimates of structure. We calculated structural metrics at scales from individual trees to 90 × 90 m neighborhoods and combined them with metrics for topography, site water balance, and burn weather to predict immediate and delayed post-fire tree mortality.ResultsMortality rates decreased while average diameter of newly killed trees increased each year post-fire. Burn weather predictors as well as interactive terms across scales improved model fit and parsimony. Including landscape-scale information improved finer-scale predictions but not vice versa. The amount of fuel, fuel configuration, and burning conditions predicted total mortality at broader scales while tree group-scale fuel connectivity, tree species fire tolerance, and local stresses predicted the fine-scale distribution, timing, and agents of mortality.ConclusionsLandscape-scale conditions provide the template upon which finer-scale variation in post-fire tree mortality is arranged. Post-fire forest structure is associated with the etiologies of different mortality agents, and so landscape-level heterogeneity is a key part of ecosystem stability and resilience.
Journal Article